


How Tall We Are

by Read_Like_Youre_Running_Out_of_Time (Jantique)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, F/F, Not A Fix-It, Post-Snap Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 08:31:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18752746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jantique/pseuds/Read_Like_Youre_Running_Out_of_Time
Summary: The story of some ordinary people who survived the Snap. And what happened after."You grieve, of course, but Time doesn't stand still. So you pick up your life and move on."





	How Tall We Are

**Author's Note:**

> MIND THE TAGS! _**DON'T**_ tell me I spoiled anything for you - you were properly warned!

Five years ago, half the world's population vanished. (Half of all life in the Universe, so they say. I wouldn’t know about that. That’s the superheroes’ business. We humans down here, we’re just trying to survive and get through tomorrow.) Anyway, billions of people just ... disappeared. Then millions more died in car crashes, planes falling from the sky, the breakdown of vital services, starvation, disease. Lots of suicides. People gave it various names: the Vanished, the Lost, the Snapture. The Day Everything Changed. But mostly people just said Before and After, and everyone know what you meant. There was never a day we didn't all think about it.

I was luckier than most. My wife Penina vanished, but my daughter Meridith and I survived. Doubly lucky: we live in a small town - not much more than a village, really - so the breakdown in services wasn't as total or as devastating as those in the big cities. People in small towns take care of their own. You grieve, of course, but Time doesn't stand still. So you pick up your life and move on.

I was chopping vegetables for dinner, waiting for Wendy and Merri to come home from the dentist. Wendy and I met about a year After. We've been together for nearly three. She lost her husband Alexander. They didn't have children. She's a social worker, works in one of the group homes for orphans. A lot of those, now. I used to be an attorney. Fortunately, my mother insisted on me learning to sew my own clothes. Now I make my own clothing, and other people's, too.

I heard the front door open and the sound of small feet racing across the floor. My daughter was five Then; now she's just turned ten. "Almost grown", as she says. That makes me smile, but not where she can see. 

"Mommy! Mommy! I got a check-up, and my teeth are _perfect_!" Black hair flying everywhere and warm brown eyes. Sometimes she reminds me so much of Penny it hurts. But you move on. 

I couldn’t resist teasing her, just a little. "Meridith McKay-Henry, are you telling the truth? _Perfect_?!"

"YES!" She practically screamed in outrage at being doubted. "Mom, tell her!" She turned pleading eyes on Wendy for confirmation. Wendy and I exchanged glances. We were both trying hard to keep a straight face, and probably not doing a very good job of it. But she confirmed, "Yes, Dr. Schwartz said Merri is doing a very good job taking care of her teeth."

"Well, then," I allowed, "I guess we can have pie for dessert, if you promise to brush right after."

"What kind of pie?", she asked suspiciously. She did _not_ like rhubarb. 

"Caramel apple," I promised. 

" _Yaaay_! Thanks, Mommy! Okay, I'll go wash my hands for dinner now!" She ran off. Dinner wouldn't be ready for another half hour, but sanitation never hurt. Wendy and I smiled at each other, and exchanged a quick kiss and a hug. This was nice, normal - the new normal. Familiar and comfortable, lulling our fears. You never can guess when it's all going to change. 

We were still eating dinner - not yet having reached dessert - when we heard banging on the front door. It was Rodney, the teenager from two doors down. "Dad told me to tell everyone to turn on their radios! They said, the guys on the radio, they said they're coming back!", he gulped.

"Who's coming back?", Wendy reasonably asked. 

"The--", he swallowed hard and waved his hand in the air. "Um. Them. The ... the ones who disappeared." He visibly cheered up as the word came to him. "The Vanished! They just started showing up, everywhere!"

Wendy and I just stared, disbelieving, numb, unable to even formulate the million questions crowding our brains. It couldn't be - could it? 

"Gotta go! Bye!" Rodney ran off. Wendy and I staggered into the living room and collapsed on the nearest chairs. Behind me, Merri was saying something about the pie. I just waved a hand at her and mumbled, "Sure, honey." Pie was no longer important.

They were coming back. Penny. Alex. All of them. The ones we loved, lost, grieved - and moved on from. Who were you married to? How would they fit into our lives? Had it been five years for them - had they moved on also? Or was it just a moment for those who had vanished? Would they expect to be everything to be the same as they'd left it? If so, billions of people would be in for a rude awakening.

It was a good thing, _of course_ it was a good thing. But it was not going to be easy or painless. How would we feed them, take care for them, in this new world we now lived in?

Wendy began to laugh, a broken, choking, unhappy laugh. I waited. "Oh, sorry, hon," she said. "I was just imagining all of them coming back here now. I mean, it's great, right? But--", she broke off. That was it exactly. Great, but. 

Anyway," she went on, more composed, "I just thought of a line from T.S. Eliot, “’If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?’” 

I made a face. “By that measure, after what we’ve been through, we should all be ten feet tall already!”

She reached out and held my hand. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to stand a little taller than that, then.”

I guess we will.

END

**Author's Note:**

> Let's see. I don't normally write first person, F/F, or OCs. But this story wanted to be told. I am merely the conduit! 😁


End file.
